Women's March returns to Washington with goal of electing more Women to Office

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It’s only been a year after a million people rallied across the globe in an effort to empower females, hoping to create an enduring political movement that sees more women occupy government offices. As if that was not enough, the activists are returning to the streets.

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Reports indicate that plans have been laid as to how hundreds of gatherings will gather on Saturday and Sunday across the U.S. and in places such as Beijing, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Nairobi, Kenya.

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There are plans for a rally set to take place on Sunday in Las Vegas in an effort to register 1 million voters. The Washington D.C. rally in 2017 and other marches created solidarity for those denouncing President Donald Trump’s views on immigration, LGBT, and abortion.

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The move led some women to run for elected office while the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct became a cultural phenomenon. “We made a lot of noise,” said Elaine Wynn, an organizer. “But now how do we translate that noise into something concrete or fulfilling?”

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Democrats believe they have a good chance of winning the seat held by embattled Republican Sen. Dean Heller and weakening the GOP’s hold on the chamber.

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According to organizers, Nevada is also a microcosm of larger national issues such gun control after Las Vegas became the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern history.

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The Sunday rally is being held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ stadium 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of the famous Strip where a gunman opened fire on a concert, killing 58 people.

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Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains will hold a huge voter registration training effort on Saturday as part of a nationwide effort to register over a million voters in 2018.

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According to Minnie Wood, who is a nurse practitioner that participated in the 2017 gathering in Las Vegas, she was left with a sense of solidarity and “this feeling of almost a quickening, this resistance brewing”.

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It also laid the groundwork for the recent movement that brought a reckoning for powerful men accused of sexual misconduct, Sarsour said.

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“I think when women see visible women’s leadership, bold and fierce, going up against a very racist, sexist, misogynist administration, it gives you a different level of courage that you may not have felt you had,” she said.

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Women were inspired by last year’s massive marches and they went on to seek higher office, such as Mindi Messmer, a 54-year-old environmental scientist from Rye, New Hampshire.

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The speakers in Las Vegas will include Democratic officeholders pledging to elect more progressive candidates in swing states. Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood also will address the crowd.

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The organizers for the Sunday rally are striving for greater inclusion this year, with Latina and transgender female speakers, said Carmen Perez, another co-chair of the 2017 Washington march.